A Baton Rouge man who is suspected of burglarizing a Zachary home in December and shooting at a resident when they returned was arrested Wednesday, according to jail records.

Johnny Mitchell

Johnny Lee Shelmire Mitchell, a 25-year-old resident of Wayne Drive in Baton Rouge, is suspected of burglarizing a home on the 19900 block of Deer Creek Road on Dec. 22. According to an arrest warrant, Mitchell was with two other men, Paul Keller and Robert Neff, that day. Neff called a neighbor and told him he wanted to buy some marijuana, and the neighbor said he had to go to his store with his father.

Mitchell and Neff then went to the neighbors’ home and burglarized it, the warrant says. When the neighbors returned, they found the two men standing in the bedroom doorway wearing masks and armed with a gun.

One of the neighbors fled out the back door and jumped off the deck, the warrant says. Mitchell chased him and fired several shots.

Keller was later arrested, based on DNA evidence, on suspicion of a different home invasion and armed robbery nearby. The warrant says Keller told police about the Deer Creek Road burglary and identified the suspects as Neff and a man he knew as “L.J.”

Investigators ultimately identified L.J. as Mitchell, the warrant says. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery.